The Moon and the stars — March 2028
Lunar occultations of stars to magnitude 9.5, computed for your location
Every night the Moon slides in front of stars. A star doesn't fade behind it: it switches off, then back on at the other edge, often an hour later. Pick your place and instrument; the list shows only what you can see.
39 occultations you can see from New Delhi with a small telescope (80 mm) this month, on 13 nights · 1171 in all from there
Times in IST. A night runs from noon to noon, so an event at 01:30 stays with the evening before. On each Moon, the numbered marks show where on the limb each star disappears or reappears.
Night of Sat 4 Mar
- 120:13:00 HIP 23349 V 7.5Disappears at the dark limb
- 222:53:44 HIP 23712 V 6.6Disappears at the dark limb · reappears 23:02:56 at the dark limb
- 323:40:00 HIP 23884 V 7.6Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Sun 5 Mar
- 123:19:29 TYC 1881-187-1 V 7.6Disappears at the dark limb
- 202:10:36 HIP 29702 V 7.3Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Mon 6 Mar
- 119:36:56 ω Gem V 5.2Reappears at the bright limb
Night of Fri 10 Mar
- 100:31:22 HIP 54260 V 7.0Disappears at the dark limb
- 205:14:36 69 Leo V 5.4Disappears at the dark limb
Night of Sat 11 Mar
- 122:48:16 HIP 58268 V 6.7Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Sun 12 Mar
- 100:14:04 HR 4901 V 6.0Reappears at the dark limb
- 202:08:30 HIP 63220 V 6.4Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Wed 15 Mar
- 100:10:31 TYC 6781-720-1 V 7.5Reappears at the dark limb
- 201:29:13 Gaia …2716544 V 7.2Reappears at the dark limb
- 303:35:11 2 Sco V 4.7Disappears at the bright limb · reappears 04:45:49 at the dark limb
- 404:45:46 TYC 6782-2147-2 V 7.1Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Thu 16 Mar
- 101:16:23 HIP 82069 V 7.0Reappears at the dark limb
- 203:39:10 HIP 82397 V 7.5Reappears at the dark limb
- 304:52:11 HIP 82512 V 7.5Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Fri 17 Mar
- 102:50:52 HIP 86949 V 7.4Reappears at the dark limb
- 204:23:24 HR 6621 V 6.3Reappears at the dark limb
- 305:26:49 Gaia …3206656 V 8.0Reappears at the dark limb
- 405:34:34 HIP 87306 V 7.0Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Sat 18 Mar
- 104:58:05 HIP 91962 V 8.4Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Sun 19 Mar
- 103:47:21 TYC 6889-612-1 V 8.0Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Mon 20 Mar
- 104:11:37 Gaia …6087680 V 6.8Reappears at the dark limb
Night of Thu 30 Mar
- 119:21:06 Electra (17 Tau) V 3.7Reappears at the bright limb
- 219:31:33 TYC 1800-1607-1 V 8.3Disappears at the dark limb
- 319:33:42 TYC 1800-2201-1 V 6.3Disappears at the dark limb
- 419:36:44 HIP 17704 V 6.8Disappears at the dark limb
- 519:38:50 Alcyone (η Tau) V 2.8Disappears at the dark limb · reappears 20:39:51 at the bright limb
- 619:39:54 TYC 1800-1579-1 V 8.4Disappears at the dark limb
- 720:01:06 Gaia …5088128 V 8.3Disappears at the dark limb
- 820:11:06 TYC 1800-1601-1 V 7.0Disappears at the dark limb
- 920:29:44 Pleione (28 Tau) V 5.2Disappears at the dark limb · reappears 21:28:06 at the bright limb
- 1020:34:53 TYC 1800-901-1 V 8.0Disappears at the dark limb
- 1120:35:36 Atlas (27 Tau) V 3.6Disappears at the dark limb · reappears 21:21:20 at the bright limb
- 1220:38:15 TYC 1804-265-1 V 7.5Disappears at the dark limb
- 1320:39:05 HIP 17862 V 6.6Disappears at the dark limb
- 1420:53:00 TYC 1800-985-1 V 7.6Disappears at the dark limb
Reading the list
The Moon images use LRO LOLA terrain (a 40 KB relief map), lit and tilted as at that moment. North up, east left. Dark-limb events are easy to see: the star vanishes at, or reappears from, the Moon's unlit edge. At the bright limb only bright stars show against the glare. PA is where on the edge it happens, measured from north through east. Cusp angle is the distance from the crescent's nearest tip. graze means the star skims the edge from your place and may blink behind mountains.
| Instrument | dark limb | bright limb |
|---|---|---|
| Naked eye | V ≤ 3.0 | V ≤ 1.0 |
| Binoculars | V ≤ 6.5 | V ≤ 3.5 |
| Small telescope (80 mm) | V ≤ 8.5 | V ≤ 5.5 |
| Telescope (200 mm) | V ≤ 9.5 | V ≤ 7.0 |
Rules of thumb: the dark-limb limit drops by 2.5 mag × (lit fraction − 0.4) in moonglare and by 1 mag in twilight. Events with the Moon below 5° are left out, and so are daylight events except for the brightest stars. Stars: Gaia DR3 to G 9.5, Hipparcos-2 for the brightest, names from the Yale Bright Star Catalogue. Moon: JPL DE431. Times use the Moon's smooth edge (±2 s). Mountains can shift a contact by seconds, and by more near a graze.